Thursday, December 16, 2004

Day 4 : Crossing 100 mph

Today my friends Rajesh, Jennifer and I went to the same Duomo Cathedral. It looked magnificent in day light. The architecture of the church was amazing. We went to the roof top of the church and took some pictures. Then we came down and went inside the church. It was not very crowded inside. But the place looks magnificent.

Then we did some shopping at La Rinascente, the most famous and exclusive store in Milan and I decided to call it a day early as I had to drive back to Innsbruck, Austria that evening.

I had some Italian cake, 'Panettone' which my friend Jennifer told is only made during Christmas time. Then I filled the gas tank with the help of my friend who knows Italian and said goodbye to them and started my journey to Innsbruck.

I always liked driving in the night, that too when I have some good music CDs, Iam all set to drive for a full night too. When I tried to enter the destination, Innsbruck hotel address into my navigation computer I did not find the country Austria. I thought that this navigation doesn’t include Austria and so I just decided to drive to Innsbruck by following signs and when I get there I decided to call the hotel and get the directions. So I started to drive through the same Italian highway to Innsbruck.

It was fun driving in the night, The good thing is as everyone is driving fast in Italy, consistently almost always above 95mph I felt pretty good to. Thank God, the traffic was free. All the slow moving vehicles, and trucks religiously stuck to the right lane and left the fast flying cars alone on the left lane.

Since I had nearly some 500 miles on my car I decided to cross the 100mph barrier. So I did :) I managed to take some pictures of the speedometer reading while driving.

After 4 hours of driving I reached Innsbruck. I stopped at a gas station to get the directions. And when I looked at my navigation monitor I saw the place Österreich. Then it stuck me suddenly that I remembered seeing this name in the list of countries in the navigation. Then I went back to the main screen and saw the list of countries and selected Österreich. Then I went to the cities list and I saw Innsbruck. So was the street name. Hah. There we go. I realized. Austria is called Österreich in Austrian/German. So with the help of navigation I again reached my hotel.

It was around 10pm when I checked in my hotel and I knew I have a long day ahead the next day. So I took a quick shower and went to bed early.
The Duomo Cathedral
One more view of the magnificient Duomo Cathedral
Roof of the Duomo Cathedral
YAY. Crossing 100 mph
Way to Innsbruck, Austria